1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to cutting knives for die cutting, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for mounting cutting knife cavities onto a baseboard.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Cutting knives are commonly used for cutting sheet material such as cloth or vinyl. Cutting knives are also referred to in the industry as cutting dies. Typically, a cutting knife assembly has a support board with a cutting blade or knife mounted thereto shaped to cut a desired pattern. The cutting knife assembly is mounted into a press. The sheet material is fed into the press. The press forces the cutting blades or knives through the sheet material to cut the desired pattern. A common press type is a clicker die press.
The cutting knives are mounted to the support plate which is commonly wood or steel. Wood is preferred because of its low cost compared to steel. A typical method for mounting a cutting knife is by machining a channel into the support plate corresponding to the shape of the desired pattern and securing the cutting knife within the channel. The support plate is typically machined in a machine shop at a location remote from the manufacturing area and then brought to the press for assembly.
Sheet material comes in a variety of widths. It is common for the widths of a particular material to vary several inches between rolls. It is highly desirable to fully utilize the material to minimize waste. As material widths change, placement of the fixed cutting edges may not fully utilize the material unless rearranged.
Conventional cutting knife mounting methods do not allow for the easy removal and rearrangement of the cutting knife to fully utilize different material widths or improved layouts. Because the modifications to the support plate are performed off-line, substantial time and effort are required to rearrange the knives. So much effort is required that a substantial material width change is required before rearranging is cost effective.
Conventional machining methods used in the mounting of cutting knives result in permanent modification to the base plate. Subsequent changes in cavity layout require new baseplate material. New baseplate material substantially increase cost of a new arrangement.
It is therefore desirable to have the capability to quickly and cost-effectively rearrange the cutting knives to fully utilize the available material.